Alyssa Lucas’ brand new MacBook Pro tumbled five floors and slammed into the ground on her first day at Ohio University in 2014.
In its final moments, her laptop was resting on the sheets of her bed in Mackinnon Hall when, in an attempt to adjust her bunk bed, an OU worker moved the Macbook to the windowsill.
Thirteen months later, OU repaid her $1,842.93 for the fallen laptop.
Lucas is one of 96 parties that have sued OU over the past 10 years in the Ohio Court of Claims. Of those 96 cases against the university, 44 have ruled in the plaintiff's favor.
The 44 prevailing plaintiffs received a combined total of more than $50,000, but including settlements, OU paid more than $2.2 million, according to a Post analysis of the case list from the Ohio Court of Claims from 2006 to present.
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That analysis included cases in which OU was the sole defendant, excluding the cases against multiple institutions, which were mostly medical claims.
OU compensated individuals for vehicle damage in 27 cases, and 16 involved lost, damaged or stolen property aside from vehicles.
Individuals have also received money from the university through settlements, which paid out more than $2.1 million in 14 cases over the past 10 years, including a settlement for $250,000 for a former student’s loss of an arm due to necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating bacterial disease, and $1,000,000 following a wrongful death lawsuit for a student who died of bacterial meningitis in 2010.
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Legal judgments and settlements are paid with excess money in OU’s general budget, which is paid for by tuition and fees, money the state provides the university, investment income from cash balances, and non-tuition and fee revenue, OU's General Counsel John Biancamano said in an email.
“If your claim is for $10,000 or less you don’t need a lawyer to do that," Mark Reed, clerk of the court of the Ohio Court of Claims, said. "You can file a claim with the court."
The claim form is on the Ohio Court of Claims website.
“What we do with that is we hear those cases without folks being required to come to Columbus,” Reed said.
The plaintiff submits his or her claim, and the state agency — OU — would file a response, typically called an investigation report, Reed said.
“Once that investigation report is filed, the plaintiff ... can file a written response to supplement the court's records,” Reed said.
Reed or a deputy clerk of the courts typically reviews the response and decides if the claim needs to be awarded, Reed said.
“That clerk's decision is final unless the person has it reviewed by a judge’s court,” Reed said.
The judge’s court can then review the clerk’s decision and make a decision about the case, Reed said.
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One of the 44 cases that ruled in the plaintiff's favor was Lucas’.
“I don’t have an air conditioner in the window nor did I have a screen on my window," Lucas, a sophomore studying journalism, said in an email. "One thing led to another and in her intent to fix the bed she knocked off my laptop from the windowsill."
After that happened, she wanted a new laptop because she felt it was essential to have a laptop as a college student. OU just repaid her in September.
“My mom got in touch with a bunch of people to have OU buy me a new laptop and that is why I sued,” Lucas said in an email.
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When Holly Craddock returned back to her single room in Wray House after a weekend away in the beginning of October, she discovered that her pillow had mold on it.
Craddock, a senior studying strategic communication, did not have air conditioning in her room, but the people next to her did.
Her pillow was resting against her wall, which was cold from her neighbor's air conditioning
“It created condensation on the wall, which led to mold growing on the wall," Craddock said. “My pillow, leaning up against that, it got moldy, too.”
She won her case against OU in June.
She said she is glad she sued the university. She gained $55 from the settlement for the lost pillow.
“I was just trying to get some money for a pillow that I’ve already replaced anyway,” Craddock said.
In addition to winning, the university gave Craddock $100 in Bobcat Cash.
“Obviously I couldn’t use that to buy a pillow, but that was nice of them to do that,” Craddock said.
Falling on university property was another reason why many people filed a claim against OU.
A slip and two broken teeth later, Hannah Scolaro was left with a hefty dental bill.
The sophomore studying biochemistry slipped on an icy sidewalk Feb. 21 as she waited at a bus stop in front of the Academic and Research Center. Scolaro slipped as she was planning on making her way to Nelson Dining Hall and broke her two front teeth on the sidewalk at the bus stop.
“I ended up getting two root canals, and it stretched over a long period,” Scolaro said.
In August, she won $2,870 to cover the dental bills, but on Nov. 4 a judge ruled that OU doesn’t have to pay her bill.
After the August ruling, OU filed an investigation report reasoning it was not liable for the accumulation of snow and ice.
Judge Patrick M. McGrath ruled the university had no duty to remove the ice and snow or warn the public of related dangers.
Scolaro said OU didn’t salt the sidewalks at the university bus stop, even though OU had done so on other sidewalks on campus.
“Had (the sidewalk) been salted, it wouldn’t have been an issue,” Scolaro said.
None of these parties interviewed had heard of other students or people suing the university.
“Looking back at this situation makes me laugh,” Lucas said in an email. “It’s a story I can tell forever because it’s absolutely silly and ridiculous that that happened to me and Ohio University bought me the same exact laptop because of what happened, so that’s chill.”
@megankhenry
